Independent Pattern Designer / Seamstress

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The Mouse House Julia Caridgan

Here’s a cute little cardy I whipped up back in November. I took my photos and then my computer broke, so it’s been waiting to go on the blog since then. It’s the Mouse House Julia cardigan, which I purchased back in April after seeing Katie’s wool jersey version. I’m sure we all do it, see another bloggers make we like so much, and we buy the pattern in a flash. I’m glad I was so easily persuaded, because I can see a few Julias spawning at the back of my closet, and I’ve already mentally dressed a few friends and relatives in imaginary Julia’s I’d like to make for them all.

The Julia cardigan was included in the perfect pattern parcel #6, so there are all sorts of Julia manifestations that have been blogged about recently. I’ve not really been on the ball with the perfect pattern parcel, but I’m going to try harder because I love the idea. You choose your price to pay for a collection of 5 indie patterns, and the money raised is donated to children education projects. Win win!

Project Stats

Fabric: 3m of mysterious jersey from the Abakhan 70% sale with an off the scale stroke factorCost £6Pattern:The Julia Women’s cardiganTime: Completed in an evening, once the tot was in bedDifficulty: Easy

The Pattern

The Julia cardigan is a versatile pattern for knits, which offers options for capped sleeve, 3/4 sleeve or full length sleeves. You can also decide between doubling over the hemmed edge, or using a rolled hem finish on a single layer of fabric. I chose the 3/4 sleeve version with doubled over hem, as this seemed more suitable to the fabric and time of year. I think a cap sleeved version, in a lightweight jersey, with a rolled hem would be great for summertime.
Full marks go to the Julia cardigan for the clarity and detail provided in the instructions. She really covered everything which meant that sewing the cardigan was a joy. I didn’t have to think at all and the whole process just naturally flowed from start to finish. A very relaxing and satisfying make.

Materials

Abakhan always has a great selection of knits in, and I was drawn to this one when the fabric started playing with my eyes. I’m not sure if it’s an optical illusion, or a quality of the weave, but in some lights the fabric looks red and grey, and in other lights the grey turns to pink. It’s subtle sheen, and velvety pile sold it to me as soon as I picked it up. I’m glad it found life as a Julia cardigan.

Sizing / modifications

I cut a size L, which is a uk size 12 – 14, and the fit works. It’s great getting it right first time, that’s the joy of knits, so much more forgiving.

Garment Assembly

This is the second garment I have made entirely on my overlocker, and the satisfaction of finally mastering my machine, getting a perfect stitch, and watching it come speedily together was immense.

We did get off to a shaky start, and I spent the first couple of hours wondering why the tension on the left needle was so loose. I tried everything, twisting dials, changing needles, threading and re-threading, reading both my overlocker manual and my overlocker book. It really was maddening and I had to give myself a cooling off break because I just couldn’t work out was wrong. No matter what I tried my left needle thread was loose and loopy. After a walk, raising some determination, and pondering over posts online, I finally found the solution. The fix was to make sure the thread was deeply seated in the disc, by “flossing” the thread down into the tension discs. I had to really tug at it to make sure it was engaged between the tension discs. This was a bit odd, because in comparison with the other 3 dials the thread seems to naturally just fall in to place, but for whatever reason the dial in question needed a bit of convincing! It was full serge ahead though after that, and I felt marvellously triumphant by not letting a machine get the better of me. Humans 1 : Robots 0

General happiness rating

5 smileys!
Lets face it, this garment isn’t going to turn any heads or stand out as unique and handmade, but for all it’s simplicity I love it. It’s a reminder of a happy evening spent with my overlocker, which at time of writing I can count on one hand. I can wrap myself in it, feel the velvety goodness and let it inspire me to make more simple, satisfying, one evening sews.

Other bloggers who’ve made this pattern

I really like how Rachel adapted the pattern to add length, it works brilliantly as a longer length cardy. I also like how she changed the sleeve hems to …

Here is a link to Katie’s Julia cardigan which was my orignal inspiration. Her two tone fabric choice really suits the pattern.

These two versions at Cut Cut Sew show off the simplicity of the long and short sleeved versions excellently.